Germany's economy shrank for the second straight year in 2024 as worried consumers held back on spending and Chinese competition ate into the country's traditional exports of cars and industrial machinery.

Friedrich Merz, the chancellor candidate for the conservative Christian Democratic Union, acknowledged the need for a “major effort” to revive the economy as his party pledges to return German growth to 2 percent over the next five years through changes to the welfare and tax systems.

German police are investigating an election campaign flyer by a far-right party that looks like a plane ticket and calls for the deportation of “illegal immigrants.”

Fake one-way plane tickets have been posted in the mailboxes of migrant families ahead of Germany’s critical elections in February. Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) – the far-right populist party unequivocally endorsed by the richest man in the world and soon Donald Trump’s advisor,

A far-right German political party endorsed by Elon Musk in December has been accused of distributing flyers that mirror "deportation plane tickets" addressed to "illegal immigrants." Residents in Karlsruhe,

Germany has not found any further cases of foot-and-mouth disease, agriculture minister Cem Oezdemir said on Wednesday, adding that experts were working day and night to establish the source of the country's first outbreak of the disease in decades.

Germany’s meat exports, mainly pork, have been concentrated on the EU after many countries banned imports after the disease swine fever was discovered in 2020. Germany said on Tuesday it had found no new foot-and-mouth cases following intensive testing around the area around the first case.

The UK has introduced a ban on pigs, sheep and cattle imports from Germany after a case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in the country. The government said on Tuesday it will no longer approve health certificates for animals,